Only one person would want Frank Childers released, and that was Aaron Childers. Falcon knew that Aaron Childers was one of the three men he was chasing.
As Falcon sat in the swing, he felt a soft, warm breeze start up, carrying on it the scent of the red roses that grew in such profusion at the end of the porch. A few houses away, he could hear the sound of happy children laughing and playing some game. A little farther down, he heard the ringing of the blacksmith as he pounded on a piece of hot metal, and farther yet, the lyrical whistle of an approaching train.
At moments like these, Falcon envied those men and women who could find satisfaction in living tranquil lives in bucolic settings. A part of him wanted to own a house in a town like this and live quietly.
But even as the thought crossed his mind, he knew that it wasn’t what he really wanted, because if he did, he could have it. He certainly had all the money he would need to be able to live such a life. In fact, he had enough money that he could have the biggest and most elaborate home in any place he chose to live in, even a place as large as Denver, or San Francisco.
But he could not do that. He could not settle down. His father once told him that he was born under a wandering star, and when the young Falcon asked him what that meant, his father said, “It means you can never be satisfied by settling down in one place.”
“Falcon,” Roosevelt said, stepping out onto the porch to interrupt Falcon’s reverie. “Could you come inside for a moment?”
Falcon nodded, but said nothing. Getting up from the swing, he followed Roosevelt into the house. The judge lived in one of the nicer houses in Medora. It was a large, two-story, brick house with a wide front porch. Just inside the door was a foyer, with the parlor off one side and the dining room off the other. From here a wide, grand staircase climbed to the second floor. The foyer was open all the way to the ceiling of the second floor, from which hung a long chain, supporting a chandelier filled with dangling crystal prisms that caught the morning sun and projected little splashes of color on the walls.
Judge Heckemeyer was standing just inside the foyer.
“Mr. MacCallister,” he said. “Would you come in and visit for a few minutes?”
“All right.”
“Coffee?”
“Yes. Black.”
The judge nodded at the housekeeper; then Falcon and Roosevelt followed him into the parlor. The judge offered Falcon an overstuffed chair, and as Falcon settled into the dark maroon upholstery, he got the idea that this was normally the judge’s chair. The judge had offered it to him, which meant the judge wanted something from him.
Heckemeyer waited until the coffee was brought before he spoke.
“I’m sure you have heard the news about my daughter being kidnapped,” Heckemeyer began.
“Yes, I’ve heard.”
“Teddy . . . that is, Mr. Roosevelt, suggested that you might be able to . . . uh . . . get her back.”
“I might.”
“Then, I’m asking you . . . no, I’m begging you, please do so. I’ll pay you any amount of money you want, just . . .”
Falcon held up his hand and shook his head. “I don’t want any money,” he said.
“All right, I . . . I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to demean you by offering money. It’s just that . . .”
“You want her back,” Falcon finished for him.
“Yes.”
“Judge, during the recent trial, you heard Mr. Woodward make reference to the number of men I have killed in self-defense, did you not?”
“Yes, of course I heard it.”
“And, if truth be told, you agree with him, don’t you? I mean with regard to how many times I find myself in situations where it has been necessary for me to kill.”
“I, uh, have some concern about that, yes,” Judge Heckemeyer admitted.
“But clearly, if I undertake this mission for you, I may well find myself in this same situation again.”
“You mean you might have to kill to save your life?” Heckemeyer said.
“Yes,” Falcon said. “Or to save the life of your daughter,” he added.
“Then do it,” Heckemeyer said. “I know this is unmasking me for the hypocrite I am. Here all this time I have derided you for killing in self-defense, and now I am telling you that I would understand it if you killed the men who took my daughter from me. Understand it? God help me, I would welcome it.”
“Do you have the note they left?”
“Yes, it’s right here,” Heckemeyer said as he handed the note to Falcon. This was the first time Falcon had seen the note, though he already knew what the note said, for the messenger the judge had sent for Roosevelt this morning had told them.
“Have you heard anything else from them?” Falcon asked. “Since this note, I mean.”
Heckemeyer shook his head, then pointed at the note. “As you can see there, they say they will get in touch with me again when I have authorized the release of Frank Childers.”
Heckemeyer was silent for a moment as Falcon looked at the note.
“I must confess that I am totally at a loss as to what to do now,” Heckemeyer said.
“Do you want my opinion?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Release Childers,” Falcon said.
“What?” Heckemeyer responded in surprise. He shook his head vehemently. “No, I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”
Falcon handed the note back. “Then I’m sorry. If you don’t release Frank Childers, there’s nothing I can do to help you.”
Judge Heckemeyer glared at Falcon. “What on earth are you saying?” He turned to Roosevelt. “Teddy, what is this? You told me he could help me. If the only way to get my daughter back is to release Frank Childers, then I could certainly do that with no help from Mr. MacCallister.”
“Let me talk to him,” Roosevelt said.
“You can talk all you want,” Falcon said. “Unless he releases Frank Childers, there is nothing I can do.”
“Why must I release Frank Childers?”
“How else are we going to find your daughter?” Falcon asked.
“What do you mean?”
“After Frank Childers is released, he is going to go straight as an arrow to his brother. That’s where your daughter is. I’m going to follow him and I’ll get Anna back.”
“What about Frank Childers?”
“I’ll take care of him too,” Falcon said.
“What do you mean, take care of him?”
“Do you want your daughter back?”
Judge Heckemeyer nodded.
“Then issue the order releasing Frank Childers,” Falcon said again.
Judge Heckemeyer closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. It did not escape his notice that Falcon had not answered his question as to what he meant by taking care of Frank Childers. The judge held that pose for a long time before he sighed and spoke.
“I don’t feel very good about doing this,” he said. “But if it is the only way . . .”
“It is the only way,” Falcon said.
“Very well. I’ll send a telegram ordering his release today.”
“No,” Falcon said. “Send a letter. That will give me time to get there. I need to be there when they let him out.”
“All right.”
“Oh, and hang up the red cloth. If Frank’s brother doesn’t know he’s being released, he won’t be there to meet him. And if he doesn’t meet him, I won’t be able to follow them to find out where they are holding Anna.”
“All right, Mr. MacCallister. Whatever you say,” Heckemeyer agreed.
When Falcon and Roosevelt left the house, they walked down to the Golden Spur. After greeting several of the regulars, they took a table in the back of the room.
“You are convinced that Aaron Childers is the one who kidnapped Anna?”
“He is one of them.”
“One of them?”
“There are three.”
“My word, I just realized,” Roos
evelt said. “It’s the same three, isn’t it?”
“The same three?”
“The three men who attacked me that day. The ones you drove off. They are the ones who have kidnapped Anna.”
“I believe that is true.”
“It wasn’t just a happy circumstance that you came by that day, was it? You were already looking for them, weren’t you?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Why?”
Falcon told Roosevelt about finding Luke Douglass dying, and his wife, Mary, already dead in a burning house.
“Childers and the other two murdered them,” he said. “I made a vow that day to hunt them down and bring them to justice.”
“I get the feeling that, regardless of what Judge Heckemeyer might have said today, you were going to go after them.”
“I was.”
Roosevelt was silent for a moment, then he nodded. “Well, it is indeed a noble cause for someone like you,” Roosevelt agreed.
“Someone like me?”
“A roughrider.”
Falcon chuckled. “A roughrider? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that term before.”
“Of course you haven’t. I just coined it.”
“What is a roughrider?”
“My definition would be a warrior for justice,” Roosevelt replied. “You say that Aaron Childers is one of the bandits. Do you know the names of the other two?”
“Yes,” Falcon said. “One of them is Aaron’s cousin, Dalton Yerby. The other is Percy Shaw. Shaw is no kin to either of them.”
“How is it that you know them?”
“Their names came out in the trial.”
“What trial?”
Falcon told how six men had robbed a bank in Belfield.
“I shot two of them,” he said. “Ethan Yerby and Corey Childers. Ethan was Dalton Yerby’s brother, Corey was Aaron Childers’s brother.”
“Did you kill them?”
Falcon shook his head. “No, I just wounded them, and not too severely. Frank Childers came back for them and we wound up capturing him and the two wounded men. Aaron, Dalton, and Percy Shaw got away.”
“Bully for you,” Roosevelt said enthusiastically.
“Yes, well, I was too little, too late. They killed Sheriff Billy Puckett. Puckett was a friend of mine . . . had been a friend of my father’s actually. He was a good man who deserved better than to be shot down by the likes of that bunch of thieves and outlaws.”
“So now Aaron is trying to get Frank out of prison. What about the other two?”
Falcon told about the jail break on the very day they were to be hanged. He concluded the story by telling that Corey and Ethan had both been killed by Luke Douglass.
“I thought they killed him.”
“They killed each other.”
“Good for Mr. Douglass. So, what do we do now, and when do we start?”
“We?”
“Yes, of course we. I’m going with you.”
Falcon shook his head. “No, you aren’t,” he said.
“But of course I am,” Roosevelt insisted. “In the first place, as I am sure you are aware by now, Anna is of some . . . personal concern to me. And of course, Judge Heckemeyer is my friend, which means I have every obligation to go. And the fact that these three men once launched a personal attack against me gives me every right to go.”
“You aren’t going with me,” Falcon said again.
“Come on, Falcon, be reasonable. If Frank Childers is released from prison and joins with the other three, that would be four of them. Four against one? Even for you, the odds are quite formidable.”
“You aren’t going, Teddy, and that’s it.”
“Would you give me one reason why not?” Roosevelt asked.
“Destiny,” Falcon said.
Roosevelt got a strange look on his face. “Destiny? What do you mean by destiny?”
“I told you before, Teddy, you are a man of destiny. Don’t ask me how I know it . . . maybe I’ve been around the Indians so long that I have the medicine. I just know that if something happened to you because of me, I would be cheating not only you, but the world.”
Roosevelt laughed nervously. “That’s nonsense,” he said.
“No, it isn’t,” Falcon insisted. “And what’s more, you know it isn’t.”
“Even so, that isn’t reason enough to keep me from going with you.”
“Then how is this for a reason? If you insist on going with me, I’m going to crack you over the head.”
“Oh? I believe I’ve already given you a demonstration of my ability to defend myself,” Roosevelt said pointedly.
Falcon laughed. “That you have, Teddy, that you have,” he said. “And that’s why I know I will be able to keep you from joining me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because I won’t fight fair. I’ll wait until your back is turned, and I’ll club you with my pistol.”
Roosevelt rubbed the top of his head; then he laughed, a high-pitched but rich laugh.
“Falcon, my friend,” he said. “You make a good argument. All right, I will not try to go with you. At least, not in person. But I will be with you in spirit and prayer.”
“That’s all I need,” Falcon said.
Chapter 22
Aaron Childers was about half-a-mile out of town, but he chose a position that would give him an unrestricted view of the judge’s house. Pulling a spyglass from his saddlebag, he climbed up a little hill alongside the trail, lay down on a rock, then looked through the lens.
There it was, in the right front window, a splash of red.
Happily, he climbed back onto the horse and rode quickly back out to the cabin where Dalton and Percy were watching over Anna.
“He’s a-goin’ to do it!” Aaron shouted as soon as he got back.
“How do you know?” Dalton asked. “Did he give you the money?”
“No, not yet he ain’t,” Aaron said. “But he’s goin’ to, ’cause he’s got ’im a red cloth hangin’ in the front winder just like we told ’im to.”
“When do we get the money?” Percy asked.
“Just hold your horses on the money,” Aaron said. “We’ll get the money after we’ve got Frank back.”
“Seems to me like it ought to be the other way around. We should get the money first, then go get Frank.”
“I’m the one making the decision here,” Aaron said. “And as long as I’m making the decisions, we’re goin’ after Frank first.”
“All right,” Percy said. “But after we get him, then I think maybe we ought to take us another vote on seein’ just who is in charge. ’Cause so far, your bein’ in charge ain’t worked out all that good.”
“All right,” Aaron said with a little chuckle. “Soon as we get Frank, we’ll take another vote if that’s what you want.”
“Yeah,” Percy said. “That’s what I want.”
“Percy, you dumb ass,” Dalton said. “If we take a vote with his brother here, who do you think is going to win?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” Percy said. “I guess I just wasn’t thinkin’ is all.”
“That’s your problem. You never think. Besides which, he seems to be doin’ all right now, don’t he? The judge hung up the red cloth, which means he’s goin’ to do it all. He’s goin’ to turn Frank a-loose, and give us the money to boot.”
“Yeah, but what about them other times when nothin’ Aaron did went right?”
“I tell you what, Percy, you don’t have to stay around,” Aaron said. “Fact is, why don’t you just light out now?”
“Before I get my share of the money?” Percy replied. He shook his head. “No, there ain’t no way you’re a-goin’ to get rid of me that easy.”
“Then keep your mouth shut and do what I tell you,” Aaron said. He looked over toward the bed where Anna sat. “And keep an eye on her, if that’s not too big a job for you.”
“Listen, she’s smarter’n you think. She tricked me,” Percy said.
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“Hell, Percy, she doesn’t have to be very smart to trick you. You’re one of the dumbest sons of bitches I’ve ever met,” Aaron said, and Dalton laughed at the quip.
“You got no call to be a-talkin’ to me like that,” Percy said.
“I’m goin’ to the prison to meet Frank when they let him out,” Aaron said. “You two stay here and stay out of trouble.”
“We’ll be here when you get back, Aaron,” Percy said.
“Yeah, I know you will. The question is, will she?” He looked at Anna. “Are you going to give us any trouble?” he asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about me,” Anna said sarcastically. “I’ll have a nice supper cooked for you when you get back.”
Aaron laughed. He said to Percy, “I’m takin’ your horse.”
“What?” Percy said. “What do you mean you’re takin’ my horse?”
“How else are we goin’ to get Frank back here?” Aaron replied. “We sure ain’t goin’ to ride double.”
“But you can’t just take my horse.”
“Oh, take it easy,” Aaron said. “We’ll get Frank a horse soon’s he gets back.”
“I’ll go out with you, Aaron,” Dalton said. “I ’spect I’d better get on up the hill and keep a lookout for a while. Wouldn’t want someone dropping in on us all unexpected.”
Both Aaron and Dalton left the cabin, and Percy walked over to the front window to watch them leave. It was a long moment before he spoke.
“I don’t care who he is, he don’t have no right takin’ my horse like he done,” Percy said in a voice that was bitter with hatred.
“I can’t believe he treats you the way he does,” Anna said. “Aren’t you all supposed to be partners?”
“Yeah, we are supposed to be partners,” Percy said. “But Aaron, somehow he’s got the idea that he’s the only one that knows anything. And he’s always bossing me’n Dalton around.”
Anna forced herself to smile. “I admire the way you stand up to him, though. You are much more defiant than Dalton.”
“Defiant? What does that mean?”
“It means you are showing him that you are a man, and you can’t be treated like a puppy dog.”
“Yeah,” Percy said. “Yeah, that’s the way I feel about it too.” He smiled. “You mean you can tell that?”
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